(Monday, just after static.)
- (Parley --> Jax): Something is wrong with Dusk.
- (Jax --> Parley): Something wrong? Is he biting people?
- (Jax --> Parley): Is he dead?
- (Parley --> Jax): ...Actually. Yes. Yes. And not that I'm aware of, should he be?
- (Jax --> Parley): I hope not. But he might be soon. This thing has started killing people.
- (Jax --> Parley): At least maybe it has? Are you feeling okay? Sick at all?
- (Parley --> Jax): I haven't gotten sick at all, no.
- (Parley --> Jax): Should I take him to the clinic? How does a flu maybe kill?
- (Jax --> Parley): The clinic is kind-of-closed. They closed as soon as they opened, they're in research mode on this thing. Have a couple people in their biosafety lab.
- (Jax --> Parley): Um well they sort of died but then they kept attacking.
- (Jax --> Parley): So maybe they didn't die? But he felt dead.
- (Parley --> Jax): He, who? Who died? Just how many people is this happening to?
- (Jax --> Parley): Half the school is sick. Two kids died, or we thought they did. But then they were up and moving around.
- (Jax --> Parley): Arjun -- he came out of the labs with you. And Daiki.
- (Parley --> Jax): I remember him. But Daiki. He was around just a week ago, are you sure?
- (Parley --> Jax): How about you? Are you alright?
- (Jax --> Parley): I know. He fought at the last fight club. I don't think I've really processed all this yet.
- (Jax --> Parley): I'm kind of on teacher mode? Parent mode? Adult mode? I'll freak out once everyone else is done freaking out maybe.
- (Jax --> Parley): I was sick but now I feel fine. That doesn't say much, I guess, the others seemed to get better and THEN died.
- (Parley --> Jax): If what you're saying is true, people aren't going to be done freaking out for a long while.
- (Parley --> Jax): And you'll be joining them whether you'd like to or not.
- (Jax --> Parley): In most horrible situations where everyone is freaking out and I'm not I say it's because I've dealt with worse but this time I don't think that's true.
- (Jax --> Parley): This pretty much tops the list for most freakout-worthy thing my life has seen so far.
- (Jax --> Parley): You're feeling okay; are all your roommates feeling okay, too? It might be a good time to be... elsewhere. Half the building is sick. A lot of the city is sick.
- (Parley --> Jax): I told Mirror not to come home. And Dusk is in my apartment now. Where he's not. Well. Around anyone.
- (Parley --> Jax): I didn't see it coming, Jax. Dusk wasn't even thinking. He just acted.
- (Jax --> Parley): If he's in your apartment, where are you?
- (Jax --> Parley): Wait, YOU didn't see it? Like mentally?
- (Jax --> Parley): Are you safe? Flicker's sick and my whole family is sick but we brought Hive to a friend who isn't; if you need a safe place to go there are some.
- (Jax --> Parley): Well, relatively safe. You might need to get out of the city entirely for actually safer from this.
- (Parley --> Jax): I didn't see it in his mind. It was just static. I almost thought someone must have been controlling him.
- (Parley --> Jax): But it's almost the opposite. No one's controlling him.
- (Jax --> Parley): Not even himself. :/
- (Parley --> Jax): I'm in his apartment right now. I didn't want to leave him around Flicker. I've never seen his appetite this bad. I don't want to think he'd do anything but.
- (Parley --> Jax): It's not really him doing it.
- (Jax --> Parley): I can't see people's minds here but it's been similar maybe. People attack and then afterwards half the time it's like they forgot they were even mad.
- (Jax --> Parley): Kind of me too. I haven't attacked anyone but I've felt just these sudden irrational angry.
- (Jax --> Parley): He might hurt Flicker. But he might hurt you, too. It's no safer for you there. Maybe less safe, Flicker is hard to get a hold of.
- (Parley --> Jax): Are you getting fugues as well?
- (Jax --> Parley): Yes. I haven't hurt anyone but with my powers that's only a matter of time.
- (Parley --> Jax): We don't know for certain this will affect everyone the same.
- (Jax --> Parley): No, that's true. And Dusk is definitely already prone to, well, biting people.
- (Jax --> Parley): Though Daiki isn't at all, violence of any sort is so wildly out of character for him.
- (Parley --> Jax): This sounds impossible, but so much of this sounds almost like a botched mental suggestion. Memory lapses, emotional spikes. Inexplicable behavior.
- (Parley --> Jax): I know what a sick mind looks like. Dusk’s wasn't hazy or feverish, it was static. Like a skipping record.
- (Parley --> Jax): ... if this is the flu that’s been on the news, I'm not sure where I should go. I don't like to leave them all here.
- (Jax --> Parley): I don't know. Can you do anything for them?
- (Jax --> Parley): Though if you have more insight into what's going on in their minds, maybe you can. This has been affecting people neurologically in all kinds of weird not-flu-ways.
- (Jax --> Parley): They're looking into it at the clinic. Io might maybe appreciate someone who could give him a little more insight. Trying to find how this thing is affecting people so they can get fixed might be more help than staying there.
- (Jax --> Parley): Though it wouldn't likely be any safer. :/
- (Parley --> Jax): I think if safety were my main priority, I'd be in the wrong line of work. I'll head over there.
- (Parley --> Jax): I've put some food and water by Flicker's bed.
- (Parley --> Jax): I guess I should hurry. If this epidemic is as bad as you say, it's going to get worse.
- (Parley --> Jax): Good luck.
- (Jax --> Parley): You too.
(shortly thereafter...)
- (Jax --> Iolaus): Io. I have a psionic friend who's noticed odd things mentally with people who are sick. It's possible he might be able to help figure out what's going on with the weird neurological symptoms. I've told him to get in touch with the Clinic to help.
- (Iolaus --> Jax): Sorry, had my hands full. This is definitely not flu. Stay away from the infected, and keep them in quarantine. I'll take all the help I can get.
- (Jax --> Iolaus): OK. I can't remember if you've met him or not. But his name is Parley and I think he'll be helpful looking into this. He should be along shortly.
- (Iolaus --> Jax): I'll probably be in my lab. Tell him to have the guard at the front lobby page me.
- (Jax --> Iolaus): Will do.
(The next day -- Tuesday, late morning.)
- (Jax -- Parley): Parley, did you noticed anything weird about the way Dusk was talking? Repeating words or anything like that?
- (Parley --> Jax): Yes. He was repeating a lot of things. It got worse, when his mind was static.
- (Parley --> Jax): ... or no, maybe that's wrong. Some words seemed to make him go static.
- (Parley --> Jax): I could be misremembering.
- (Parley --> Jax): ... Night.
- (Parley --> Jax): He was trying to say he fed last night. But he got stuck on 'night'. Then he bit me.
- (Jax -- Parley): Night. OK, yeah, that feels weird. I was noticing a lot of 'sorry' today.
- (Jax -- Parley): Are you still feeling okay? That was yesterday... with most people I've seen, at least, the symptoms started coming on fast.
- (Jax -- Parley): I hope it missed you.
- (Parley --> Jax): No symptoms yet. Wish I knew what I've been doing differently.
- (Parley --> Jax): Sorry. I think Dusk was saying that too. But word triggers. Illness doesn't behave that way. This isn't like hydrophobia in rabies victims.
- (Parley --> Jax): Hypnotism, brainwashing, subliminal messaging, mental suggestion, mind control - those work on word triggers. But they don't make you sick.
- (Jax -- Parley): With some of the mutant powers I've seen, I've stopped being sure of HOW exactly the world is supposed to work.
- (Jax -- Parley): It's definitely not a normal sick, that's for sure. I already told the doctors looking into it but I'm pretty sure it's mutant in origin. Not a telepath just a -- disease manipulator.
- (Jax -- Parley): I mean okay even for mutants this is weird. But. We're capable of a lot of weird.
- (Parley --> Jax): Limited only to our creativity, it seems. Probably poor taste to say it's remarkable at the moment. But it is.
- (Parley --> Jax): But okay. Maybe try to - I don't even know. Avoid using the words you notice are getting repeated. We should compile a list.
- (Parley --> Jax): For all we know, it could be causing brain hemorrhaging every time you say it.
- (Jax -- Parley): Eesh, there's a pleasant thought. Um. So far I've seen 'sorry' and 'water'. And you have 'night'. I'll ask around and see if anyone else has noticed anything.
- (Jax -- Parley): Or just try and pay attention to what I'm doing when my brain starts to short-circuit.
- (Parley --> Jax): Let me know how that works out.
- (Parley --> Jax): ... have you heard from Dusk?
- (Jax -- Parley): I made apartment rounds this morning but only very briefly to drop off breakfast. He was feeling okay. But that doesn't seem to mean much.
- (Parley -- Jax): I'll take any good news I can get.
- (Parley -- Jax): Do we know who this- what would you call them, pathogenkinetic is?
- (Jax -- Parley): Yes. Someone from the labs. Which means this whole thing is somewhat my fault. I believe this whole thing originated when the men sent to get him tried to shoot him. I don't think trying to hurt him was the best idea.
- (Parley -- Jax): You can't take it all on yourself. You only the last step in a very long staircase. We're here. And we'll deal with it.
- (Parley -- Jax): I only wish they weren't known to us, with the hope there might be a stranger out there that knew a cure.
- (Jax -- Parley): Yeah. We'd just had a lot of talks in the past about what we'd do if we ever ran into someone in there who could ACTUALLY end the world. I guess now we're finding out.
- (Jax -- Parley): We've talked to him but unfortunately he can't fix diseases easily. Just start them.
- (Parley -- Jax): Don't think many of us had our money on it all ending in plague.
- (Parley -- Jax): Though I suppose humans have been exploring biowarfare since long before the X gene began to express itself.
- (Jax -- Parley): They were leaning on him pretty hard in the labs to make bioweapons. Exposed him to a lot of terrible things in the hopes that he would be able to come up with better ways to kill people.
- (Jax -- Parley): ... Guess it worked.
- (Parley -- Jax): For what it's worth. I'm sorry that this is happening to your people.
- (Jax -- Parley): Thank you.
- (Jax -- Parley): It's strange, in the labs I was worried this would happen and now that it has, I --
- (Jax -- Parley): Actually I don't know anymore where I was going with that.
- (Jax -- Parley): On the other hand, this is a golden last-minute opportunity for Cage.
- (Jax -- Parley): His new video should have said, on the contrary, violence is exactly what this city needs right now.
- (Jax -- Parley): Video of Cage, standing guard in front of hordes of people trying to eat voters.
- (Jax -- Parley): A vote for Cage is a vote against zombies.
- (Parley --> Jax): What troubles me about that is that is precisely what he will do, if it comes down to it.
- (Parley --> Jax): He's in the wrong century. Is what his problem is.
- (Parley --> Jax): Were these the middle ages, he would make a fantastic king. Fearless as he is kind.
- (Jax -- Parley): Yeah. And we need that in the world, we really do.
- (Jax -- Parley): I'm just not sure we need that in office. :/
- (Jax -- Parley): If he can listen to direction I could probably use it on my TEAM though.
- (Parley --> Jax): ...in the labs, I was also worried it would happen. And now that it has, it's terrible. And sad. And it's only going to hurt everyone.
- (Parley --> Jax): That doesn't mean it doesn't also feel right.
- (Jax -- Parley): In his normal life he was a statistician. Quiet. Sort of nerdy. Very sweet. Completely uninterested in mass slaughter.
- (Jax -- Parley): And then they fed him every terrible thing they could think of to see what came out.
- (Jax -- Parley): I suppose he might be able to calculate the likelihood of the entire world turning into hordes of roving undead.
- (Parley --> Jax): I like to think the same can be said for most people.
- (Parley --> Jax): It all feels like the world runs entirely on happenstance and accident, doesn't it?
- (Parley --> Jax): Even when it's on purpose.
- (Jax -- Parley): You would hope most people would be uninterested in it. And yet a lot of people made a series of decisions to bring us here.
- (Jax -- Parley): And I imagine most of them at the time thought those decisions were the right ones.
- (Jax -- Parley): I guess that doesn't contradict you. So much of what WE do is happenstance and accident.
- (Parley --> Jax): Why not. Life sprung from carbon and hydrogen in the same way.
- (Parley --> Jax): It's not over yet, you know.
- (Jax -- Parley): Oh, I think it's probably just starting.
- (Parley --> Jax): This city is going to be naked if this keeps up. We're going to see interesting things.
- (Parley --> Jax): There's a terrible aesthetic to it all. Try to remember it. If we come out alive, I'll be commissioning you to paint it for me.
- (Jax -- Parley): I do have kind of a fondness for cities in nightmare in my art. I've painted all kinds of New-York-dystopia but this is definitely special.
- (Parley --> Jax): I've glimpsed it. Be thinking about it, if you find yourself turning it on yourself.
- (Parley --> Jax): I should get back. Remember. Night. Sorry. Water.
- (Parley --> Jax): Maybe if we get them all in the proper order we'll form some strange riddle that will be the cure.
- (Jax --> Parley): At this point that wouldn't even surprise me. Good luck.
- (Parley --> Jax): And you.
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